ut musings

Jeff and I are taking off in a few minutes (we're going to spend the weekend up north with my sister and her family), so I don't have time for a proper Blather today.

Instead, I'd like to include a posting that Allison made in Blatherchat last night that I found deeply touching and further evidence of why I feel so lucky to be part of Urban Tapestry:

"OK, we just finished UT practice and I'm going to follow up on Deb's comments on UT's musical chemistry, but I'm going to tell you stuff she never would. I'm going to tell you about how her voice transformed UT forever.

A few years back UT was visiting with Mark Osier and Kathy Cogswell out in Rochester. Deb, Jodi and I were upstairs in a sitting room going through some songs. It was one of those times where Debbie and I were into nostalgic, campy 70s songs, a trend that horrified Jodi, but she was always a good sport about singing with us. I remember clearly that we were singing The Partridge Family's "I Woke Up In Love This Morning" when Deb decided for the first time ever to add a third harmony to a UT vocal. Up 'til then she'd insisted that she couldn't sing. It was one of those magical moments, soon as I heard the three-part blend I knew UT would never again be the same. Our potential just opened up wide. That extra voice has meant everything to the evolution of UT as musicians since then. I made us sing "I Woke Up In Love This Morning" several times that weekend just so I could keep hearing those harmonies .

Tonight we finalized our version of Enya's "May It Be" from "Fellowship of The Ring". Jodi and I had worked on it over a few weeks and Deb took it away last week to work out a flute part. She wrote us tentatively last night and said she had worked out a third vocal part to the chorus and was that OK? Jodi and I wrote back to say sure, amused she would even ask. So, she added the third harmony tonight (and a lovely flute part) and we taped it and listened back to it. And it was magic, just like when Deb first added her voice to that Partridge Family song, it made me misty because the vocal blend with the added third voice just took our cover of the song to another level and I was so, so pleased. I keep listening to it on the Walkman and it just thrills me (I'm awfully happy with the final arrangement of Deb's "Waiting For Frodo" we finished tonight, too). And after nine years, that's pretty cool."

I know I've posted today's Blatherpic before, but it's one of my favourite Urban Tapestry photos. :-) Many thanks to Godfrey Joseph for taking it at Didgeri-Douze in the UK.

Have a great weekend, everyone!